Like Plato, Sidney has a negative take on laughter, which in his understanding comes from sneering at others' deformity, misery, or inferiority in any form. While
drawing the distinction between delight and laughter, Sidney again reminds us of one of his predecessors, Demetrius, the author of
De Elocutione, which distinguishes "the humorous" (to provoke laughter) and "the charming" (to give pleasure), with the former being typical of buffoons and the latter being proper of wits.
According to Sidney, laughter comes from derision, not delight. Laughter is an expression of scorn; delight is an experience of joy.
When we laugh at others, we laugh at their misery; when we laugh at ourselves, we try to deal with our own. Laughter, in other words, pains people. This viewpoint may be somewhat extreme and such a distinction may be least convincing, but we are given the opportunity to peep into some of the earliest efforts that lay down the foundation for humor studies. Here are two paragraphs taken from
"The Defence of Poesie" or "An Apology of Poetry" (1595):
But our comedians [may well refer to comedy playwrights] think there is no delight without laughter; which is very wrong, for
though laughter may come with delight, yet cometh it not of [from] delight, as though delight should be the cause of laughter; but well may one thing breed both together: nay, rather
in themselves they have, as it were, a kind of contrariety; for delight we scarcely do, but in things that have a conveniency to ourselves, or to the general nature;
laughter almost ever cometh of [from] things most disproportioned to ourselves and nature.
Delight hath a joy in it, either permanent or present.
Laughter hath only a scornful tickling. For example, we are ravished with delight to see a fair woman, and yet are far from being moved to laughter. We laugh at deformed creatures, wherein certainly we cannot delight.
We delight in good chances, we laugh at mischances; we delight to hear the happiness of our friends or country, at which he were worthy to be laughed at that would laugh;
we shall contrarily laugh sometimes to find a matter quite mistaken and go down the hill against the bias,* in the mouth of some such men, as for the respect of them one shall be heartily sorry,
yet he cannot choose but laugh; and so is rather pained than delighted with laughter. Yet deny I not but that they may go well together; for as in Alexander's picture** well set out, we delight without laughter, and in twenty mad antics we laugh without delight, so in Hercules, painted with his great beard and furious countenance, in a woman's attire, spinning at Omphale's *** commandment, it breedeth both delight and laughter. For the representing of so strange a power in love procureth delight, and the scornfulness of the action stirreth laughter.
But I speak to this purpose, that
all the end of the comical part be not upon such scornful matters as stirreth laughter only, but, mixed with it, that delightful teaching which is the end of poesy. And the great fault even in that point of laughter, and forbidden plainly by Aristotle, is that they stir laughter in sinful things, which are rather execrable than ridiculous: or in miserable, which are rather to be pitied than scorned (Sidney 358).
* Contrary to its expected course. The balls used in lawn bowling have a bias, a peculiarity in weight or shape that causes them to swerve (Sidney 358n9).
** Plutarch, in his Life of Alexander 4, discusses Apelles' (4th c. B.C.E.) famous painting of Alexander [Robinson's note] (Sidney 358n1).
*** Queen of Lydia, whom the legendary hero served fro 3 years as a slave in order to be purified of a murder; during that time he fell in love with her (Sidney 358n2).
-- Sidney, Philip. "An Apology for Poetry." The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Eds. Vincent B. Leitch, et al. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2001. Print. 326-362. Print.
